(Thread IKs:
bunnyofdoom)
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I think there's a difference between "needles exist in parks and that's lovely", vs. the reddit thing where going into a city park is a 100% guarantee of stepping on 1000 needles and instantly being assaulted by a homeless person. I take my kids to one of the sketchier parks in Hamilton, and while for sure it's possible to find a needle, and that sucks, it's not like the ground is littered with them, and you'd find just as many in a Tim Horton's bathroom (even outside the sharps disposal that's sitting right there).
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 19:42 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 07:20 |
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Alctel posted:In Victoria they cleared out the park camping but only after they had managed to secure shelter for everyone homeless (this did not go down well with the usual brigade of 'mah taxes!') The other issue is that the alternative housing offered is not necessarily safer. I've spoken with a few people who were "rehoused" during COVID. None were happy with the new situation. For example, one person was separated from their partner (mens & womens quarters), and then beaten-up and robbed in this new, safer housing. Look at this article on deaths and violence in Toronto shelters. CTV posted:TORONTO -- New data on Toronto’s city-run shelters reveal that the system has seen an explosive surge in violence in the last few years. People aren't living in tents in parks because they love camping. A lot of them are living there because they see it as safer than the alternatives.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 20:27 |
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Starks posted:At least in Toronto, these encampments aren't really in poor neighbourhoods. They're mostly in gentrifying or recently gentrified downtown areas where housing is unaffordable but that still have the infrastructure in place to support the unhoused and addicted: shelters, needle exchange, soup kitchens, detox centres, etc. There are no tents in Jane and Finch or Galloway; that's exactly why there's so much urgency and outrage over them. Even in Moss Park, which is still low income on paper, homes are selling for 1M+. The developers and property owners know that taking out the encampments won't get rid of the unhoused, the ultimate goal is to get those services and amenities shut down or moved to lower property value areas. Which, ironically, is why those amenities were put in these neighbourhoods when they were first built. It's all part of a cycle that increases income inequality and reduces social services for the vulnerable. You can see this happening in real time in Winnipeg's downtown core today. Multi million dollar high rise condo developments going up alongside upscale bars and dining establishments while the homeless camp out in bus shacks along the street, despite decades of affordable housing advocates presenting dozens of solutions to revive the downtown area for the people who actually live here that wouldn't involve selling chunks of our core out to Toronto based developers to create islands of gentrified living and amenities geared toward suburban hockey fans amidst a sea of poverty and homelessness. It's pathetic how badly this city fails it's most vulnerable citizens to cater to the wealthy and police.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 20:37 |
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nine-gear crow posted:Trudeau sees this as his one shot to get his majority back so of course he's going to take it because O'Toole is melting before our eyes and is somehow an even worse Conservative leader than Andrew Scheer was. At this point it's only a question of who's gonna eat more of O'Toole's lunch, Trudeau or Singh. Who do they even have to replace O'Toole, though? Don't say Harper. They don't seem to have much of a bench at the moment. I assume that the writ won't be dropped until the Nova Scotia election is over, as is custom.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 20:43 |
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Gros Tarla posted:And how is someone supposed to know whether a needle is hot or cold without stepping on it? Look, I'm not saying I wouldn't be concerned if my kid picked up a used sharp, but humans are terrible at evaluating risk, and my point is that used needles, while an indicator of urban decay, are not particularly dangerous.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 20:51 |
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DariusLikewise posted:There was an interesting discussion on CanPol twitter the other day about how Scheer actually might have not been that bad. Everyone was focused on the fact that they didn't "win" but reducing the Liberals to minority status after a single majority term while winning the popular vote was a pretty good accomplishment. Harper got 3 cracks to win his majority and Scheer got turfed after 1. Not that I'm complaining, the Conservatives can suck it, but it's interesting to look at it from a different angle. Given the number and severity of Liberal "scandals" before and during the campaign, I think a minority Liberal government was a huge loss that you can pin almost entirely on Scheer.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 20:53 |
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tagesschau posted:Who do they even have to replace O'Toole, though? Don't say Harper. They don't seem to have much of a bench at the moment. The irony is this is all Harper’s fault, purging the party of all potential rivals and successors over his term in office left them with a bench full of rudderless goobers with no leadership acumen. DariusLikewise posted:There was an interesting discussion on CanPol twitter the other day about how Scheer actually might have not been that bad. Everyone was focused on the fact that they didn't "win" but reducing the Liberals to minority status after a single majority term while winning the popular vote was a pretty good accomplishment. Harper got 3 cracks to win his majority and Scheer got turfed after 1. Not that I'm complaining, the Conservatives can suck it, but it's interesting to look at it from a different angle. For example, ^^^ Scheer might well have been their best possible remaining choice and he actually did what Harper merely dreamed about : actually hurt Trudeau. God only knows what would have happened in that election if the Tories had real big boy or big girl candidate who knew what they were doing, or if the apparatus was still in place to actually groom Scheer into a worthy successor to Harper, had Harper not, in his monumental hubris, taken it down the hill from 24 Sussex one cold winter night and drowned it in the river.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 21:26 |
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I hung out in both strathcona and crab park while there were encampments in them and you'd barely notice them if you weren't right near the tents.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 21:36 |
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EvilJoven posted:We see camp's burn here all the time. They also very quickly fill with trash and hazards. The bigger the camp's get the more thefts assaults and arsons happen in the area. You could say the same thing about campgrounds in the Whiteshell that all of the suburbans head out to with their huge trucks on busy weekends though.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 22:46 |
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EvilJoven posted:
I missed this post but who is this even aimed at? Who’s screaming at anyone but the police and government? It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 23:02 |
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Starks posted:I missed this post but who is this even aimed at? Who’s screaming at anyone but the police and government? It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself. I thought it was directed at Toronto generally, because it's a great description of how we deal with homelessness
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 23:16 |
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tagesschau posted:Who do they even have to replace O'Toole, though? Don't say Harper. They don't seem to have much of a bench at the moment. God, I think Skippy would def run again. Hell, Scheer clearly wants to be leader so bad he'd do is as a comeback vanity run
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 23:23 |
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Hi everyone - I'm an outreach worker in Hamilton. I waltz on in to encampments and start talking to people 5 days a week, uh feel free to ask questions and I can answer any to the best of my ability/confidentiality also please dont dox me. Hamilton is not quite as wonky as Toronto right now - a group of advocates and lawyers got an injunction in place that states that camping in public parks for up to 14 days is allowed, as long as: - People are more than 50m away from play structures, splash pads, ball diamonds, soccer fields, etc. There are plenty of parks in the city that do not have a spot that is actually 50m away from anything, depending on the size of the park / acuity/risk factors with the people there, they can be allowed to stay. - There can not be more than 5 in a park. This is actually as terribly written as it seems. Five people? Five tents? Five structures? Dealers choice. - Clients are assessed using a self identified / answered questionnaire. This questionnaire is like, everything to the city? I guess they paid a bunch of consultants for it or something. If you google 'VISPDAT' you can see the questionnaire for yourself. It scores people on a scale of 0-17, higher number means higher risk. If you are above a certain threshold, you can be considered too high risk and can be exempt from having to relocate every 14 days, which allows people to remain where they are. There are some spots that have had the same people there for over a year. The tricky thing is that a high score makes you exempt, but only a mid range score will get you actually picked up from a housing support service. Since all the housing services are non-profits that hire kids fresh outta school for ~20 bux an hour, they won't take on anyone that's 'high risk'. - Time limit is 14 days. People are asked to move every 14 days by either police or by law. Hamilton has a program called Social Navigator that is police and paramedics specifically for the unhoused community. Social Navigator is excellent - they usually stick their thumbs at the city and don't actually move people all that much, they refuse to go hands on. They are wicked connecting people with court services, doctors appointments, bail hearings, probation hearings, even giving rides to people. Social Navigator has straight up helped someone pack up, move across the street to a different park, and re set up. Regular uniform cops suck and harass people. What all this means is that effectively - people CAN be asked to move and relocate parks every 14 days, however pretty much every single person involved in that process realizes that this pointless and they'd literally just be kicking cans across the road and back every two weeks. People are fully aware that this is how the system can be gamed and police are all ok with it. ---- Ok, encampment rules aside - My personal danger threshold or whatever is pretty dang low now. I'll head straight on up and say hi, announce myself, and just start talking. There are a decent amount of needles, pipes, and garbage around, usually the worst of it is pretty localized to the tents. The rest of the parks aren't usually much worse than any other time. I think my team knows of around 6 or 7 fires since the spring? Some are accidental (smoking in the tent and falling asleep, or sometimes people will ignite hand sanitizer for warmth) and some are arson / drug debt related. Definitely had people fighting, shouting, violence against women/more at risk people, but its important to remember that crime happens disproportionately TO unhoused people. Tents get cut open and destroyed, things stolen, raided every single day. One of my actual tasks this week was to please try and get people from pooping in the city gardens and to use the public washrooms (which are closed every night at like 9 pm). I also know some parks have had their splash pads turned off because of human waste, which really sucks for kiddos in the neighborhood during the UNREAL HOT SUMMERS EXACERBATED BY CLIMATE CHANGE. Every time I've seen unhoused people shouting at someone from the public, its been the jerkoff from the public that started it and started yelling and harassing the clients. Of course, anecdotes are not evidence. In general, my opinion is that the public are babies, you can definitely still use the park and take your kids to play on the playsets. People are not going to come out of their tents and start harassing and trying to rob you, for the most part people want to stick within the little communities they know. Never heard any peep from the city about testing the soil or anything, but I wouldn't necessarily be privy to anything like that - it seems bonkers to me though. In general the challenges are getting brutal. I'm sure everyone is aware of the rental market exploding. It's becoming literally impossible to afford a place if you are on OW / ODSP. OW pays a little under $1000 month IF you have an address - if you are NFA then you only get a little under 500. The rest is specifically a 'housing allowance' that gets sent to the LL. ODSP pays a bit more, I think the most you can get as a single is $1279? Which is about what an apartment is going for now - so best case scenario IF you're on ODSP you can spend 100% of your income on rent. So you can fill out an application for city housing(5ish year wait if you're a single person. Little bit quicker for VaW / seniors. I think the fastest I've seen an application for city housing to apartment happen was about 4 months for a senior. Then tons of apartments stay open in city housing because someones name will come up - and then because of the precarious nature of being homeless, they can't be reached or contacted, so the unit sits empty for a week while they 'try to connect' (do nothing other than call the phone number that was on file when it got submitted 5 years ago), and then they move on to the next person. This process can happen multiple times, so units can just sit empty for multiple months while they can't find someone, meanwhile there's tons of people right outside who could use a spot. The options for people outside are not great - if you're a single male or female you can go to the shelters. If I were to become homeless I wouldn't be caught dead in the shelter, I'd be up in the drat woods with a tent lol. If the women's shelters are full (they always are) there are referrals to the hotel system available. As well as a separate hotel for couples. People engage with these hotel-shelters with varying success - I know people who have been kicked out after one night, and others that stayed there for 6 months until they find a place. Generally when people have been outside and it gets rough enough, they really welcome the hotel. Clients have had tears in their eyes and said we're the only people who have helped them cause we got them into those hotel hellholes. That being said - two full hotels, x30~ days a month, x~100-120 per room, x 14 months, + staffing, repairs, and cleaning costs, and you've got a bucket of I dunno, a few ten millions that probably could have been spent on more permanent solutions. Intensive Case Management is ... not functional. Whatever you're picturing for the kind of long term supports for people does not really exist. The reality is more like an old CBC article that got posted here, where someone from a Salvation Army housing service connected a client to a landlord, claiming they'd get support - and then all the worker did was drop off a mop and the place got destroyed. I don't really give a gently caress about landlords and the 'oh im just a poor landlord look at meeeeeee' from the article pisses me off, but I absolutely believe that the system failed that person and all it could do was deliver a mop. When I was a case manager for seniors before covid, I had a caseload of about 40 people, and basically all I could do to get someone out of a shelter was fill out a city housing form, and then move them into a slumlord house where they can pay $600 for a room with 10 other guys in the place while they wait. There's often no better options. As well you'll have lots of lovely case managers who make zero effort to connect with people - some of the worse ones are like, you miss one appointment and you're discharged. Workers will say they checked around and couldn't find clients - I am constantly like 'I know where everyone is and can find them, please just call me if you have trouble locating someone' and my phone remains uncalled. Very often the most support I can offer people is lukewarm bottles of water in a fuckin 30+ degree heatwave. Sorry about this very long, unfocused post. I was out in the sun all day today and I forgot my hat so I just took it all in the dang eyes. I'm not gonna proofread any of this and you can't make me. In general, I personally don't think the parks are super dangerous, just filled with some really unfortunate souls. I'd be fine with taking my kid to these, but I'd probably be supervising them and making sure they didn't get too close to stepping in stuff and making sure they knew the importance of being respectful of other people's space. I'm sensitive to some complaints I've heard, as I listed above I can see how having to shut down splash pads could really dang suck, especially in a lower income neighbourhood. On the other hand I've seen Joe Public(and if I'm being honest, a few of the city councilors) do and say some fuckin reprehensible gross poo poo, so ... gently caress, man. The problem, of course, is that the second you start pulling on any one of these threads, it all leads back to the big 'capitalism' ball of yarn. I don't have ideas, I'm just a pretty burned out outreach worker. Who support people in the camp that is directly across from the street from 3 boarded up town house complexes. As I said, sorry for the long post, and feel free to ask questions. I'm in this poo poo every day.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 23:43 |
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bunnyofdoom posted:God, I think Skippy would def run again. Hell, Scheer clearly wants to be leader so bad he'd do is as a comeback vanity run This might be a "be careful what you wish for" thing, and he's probably been utterly humiliated too many times to ever make another serious run at his boss's old crown, but I'd be very amused if Peter MacKay tried to make another grab at power and than ate poo poo directly into oblivion. Because he's Peter MacKay, and he exists only to be humiliated.
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# ? Jul 22, 2021 23:59 |
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Capital Letdown posted:OW pays a little under $1000 month IF you have an address - if you are NFA then you only get a little under 500. The more help you need, the less you get. Thanks Mike, and gently caress you.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 00:01 |
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Some real breathtaking boomer idiocy here from Hedy Fry https://twitter.com/HedyFry/status/1418298559514939393?s=20 The BC government has only in the last week just started asking those under 40 to get their second shot. I doubt almost anyone under 25 has gotten an email to book an appointment.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 01:12 |
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Hasn't BC only opened up 2nd dose vaccinations to the 18-29 demographic this month because of the 28 day turnaround?
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 01:14 |
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Arcsquad12 posted:Hasn't BC only opened up 2nd dose vaccinations to the 18-29 demographic this month because of the 28 day turnaround? More or less!
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 01:51 |
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Arcsquad12 posted:Hasn't BC only opened up 2nd dose vaccinations to the 18-29 demographic this month because of the 28 day turnaround? 25 and i got mine at the end of june, but that's because i work in a school and got my first one at the start of may. so basically ya
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 03:14 |
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Capital Letdown posted:As I said, sorry for the long post, and feel free to ask questions. I'm in this poo poo every day. As a Hamiltonian what can I be doing / where can I be sending money to help?
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 04:41 |
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Capital Letdown posted:Hi everyone - I'm an outreach worker in Hamilton. I waltz on in to encampments and start talking to people 5 days a week, uh feel free to ask questions and I can answer any to the best of my ability/confidentiality also please dont dox me. Thanks for the effort post and all that you do
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 04:50 |
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Arcsquad12 posted:Hasn't BC only opened up 2nd dose vaccinations to the 18-29 demographic this month because of the 28 day turnaround? BC is still sticking to the 8 week interval, so even more obviously, yes.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 06:31 |
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Capital Letdown posted:As I said, sorry for the long post, and feel free to ask questions. I'm in this poo poo every day. Great post, and if you have any other stories you're able to share then please
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 06:46 |
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Capital Letdown posted:As I said, sorry for the long post, and feel free to ask questions. I'm in this poo poo every day. Thanks! Wish I could buy you a coffee.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 07:23 |
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Femtosecond posted:Some real breathtaking boomer idiocy here from Hedy Fry I'll say this much about Manitoba's rollout of the vaccine: At least the second dose was just based on date, and you could sign up for your second shot the moment that they said "Everyone who got their first shot on X date or earlier can sign up for their second". None of this waiting for an email or a phone call BS.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 12:26 |
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Generation Internet fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Apr 7, 2023 |
# ? Jul 23, 2021 13:42 |
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quote:Zuroff said he's alarmed by efforts to present wartime Nazi collaborators as anti-Communist patriots. "Oh and by the way at the end of the article let's tell you who the real bad guys are" But hey, at least they mentioned it this time
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 13:53 |
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flakeloaf posted:efforts to present wartime Nazi collaborators as anti-Communist patriots It's weird how this just keeps happening. And now a word from the Minister of Finance on her favourite grandfather.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 13:55 |
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One nation's horrifying tragedy is another, whiter man's short road to profit! https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/indigenous-people-inundated-requests-survey-graves-1.6113081 quote:Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc leaders say Indigenous people across Canada are being inundated with ground-penetrating radar specialist offers to survey former residential schools grounds, and worry some may be taken advantage of.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 14:05 |
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Femtosecond posted:Some real breathtaking boomer idiocy here from Hedy Fry I'm not sure I see the problem here? She's not critiquing the youth for not getting their 2nd dose, but their 1st, has been available to them for a while. The only allusion to the 2nd shot was a generic "get it asap". What am I missing?
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 14:13 |
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Generation Internet posted:https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/victims-communism-memorial-fascists-1.6112809 lol I posted about that Pavelic brick here a while ago. Of course, the group that bought the brick is still listed as a donor, as are the Croatian Catholic Parishes that have the Ustaša coat of arms on their front door and were founded in the...*checks notes* late 40s/early 50s!?
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 14:50 |
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Gros Tarla posted:I'm not sure I see the problem here? She's not critiquing the youth for not getting their 2nd dose, but their 1st, has been available to them for a while. The only allusion to the 2nd shot was a generic "get it asap". What am I missing? How is that what you parsed from the words she wrote? Fully vaccinated would be both doses
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 14:54 |
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Gros Tarla posted:I'm not sure I see the problem here? She's not critiquing the youth for not getting their 2nd dose, but their 1st, has been available to them for a while. The only allusion to the 2nd shot was a generic "get it asap". What am I missing? Well there's 40 words in the tweet and you seem to have missed most of them, so it's hard to say without pasting the text of the tweet, but I'll have a go: "fully vaccinated" means two shots, "Only [smaller percentage]… much lower than the national percentage of [larger percentage]" communicates dismay at the identified group's performance relative to their peers, "1 dose does not offer enough protection" suggests that the identified group mistakenly believes one shot is sufficient and that correcting that impression will lead them to get their second shot. The problem comes with the added context provided by Femtosecond: that demographic has had only one week of opportunity to get a second shot in BC, but longer in (most of?) the rest of Canada, which seems a more likely explanation of the apparently slow uptake in BC. The criticism in the tweet seems entirely misdirected, though members of the identified age range are no doubt unsurprised by their elders once again absolving themselves for a lack of shared opportunity.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 14:55 |
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What's more, a shocking 0% of British Columbians aged 18-35 have received three or more shots. Get your boosters, kids! #vanvax #covidsafe
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 15:00 |
Toronto municipal gov: we're not going to do anything about the housing crisis and we're going to prevent anyone from doing anything about it too
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 15:04 |
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skewetoo posted:Toronto municipal gov: we're not going to do anything about the housing crisis and we're going to prevent anyone from doing anything about it too That's what happens when council is primarily funded by real estate interests
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 15:10 |
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infernal machines posted:How is that what you parsed from the words she wrote? pokeyman posted:Well there's 40 words in the tweet and you seem to have missed most of them, so it's hard to say without pasting the text of the tweet, but I'll have a go: "fully vaccinated" means two shots, "Only [smaller percentage]… much lower than the national percentage of [larger percentage]" communicates dismay at the identified group's performance relative to their peers, "1 dose does not offer enough protection" suggests that the identified group mistakenly believes one shot is sufficient and that correcting that impression will lead them to get their second shot. The problem comes with the added context provided by Femtosecond: that demographic has had only one week of opportunity to get a second shot in BC, but longer in (most of?) the rest of Canada, which seems a more likely explanation of the apparently slow uptake in BC. The criticism in the tweet seems entirely misdirected, though members of the identified age range are no doubt unsurprised by their elders once again absolving themselves for a lack of shared opportunity. Yeah, misread that entirely. Doh.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 15:12 |
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apatheticman posted:That's what happens when council is primarily funded by real estate interests Also the entire city budget, for a decade, has floated on the land transfer tax. If real estate ever cools significantly we're hosed.
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 15:18 |
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Well at least property taxes were low
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# ? Jul 23, 2021 15:26 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 07:20 |
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prom candy posted:As a Hamiltonian what can I be doing / where can I be sending money to help? In terms of sending money, here are a few different things off the top of my head, which may or may not sit right with anyone based on their politics: Keeping Six - https://keepingsix.org/ - This is the group that's actually responsible for getting the encampment injunction in place, which probably has done a lot to prevent scenarios like Toronto. They do harm reduction, peer counselling, and I believe they have a few doctors on staff / at least they are very close with the shelter health network. Donating to them would probably go towards things like phones, occasionallytents, etc. for people in encampments, or even towards paying a little bit to people with lived experience who are doing peer support. They've caused a few battles with the city and HPS here and there but they're good people. Hamilton Encampment Support Network - https://hesn.ca/ - This is a younger group largely led by the same group behind DefundHPS. TBH I'm not sure if they're actually registered as a non profit in order to give tax receipts if you donate or if they're much more fringe than that. They are pretty online, they hate cops, and they're angry about housing - they will deliver harm reduction supplies, tents, water, food, naloxone to people who need it. They don't super play nice with lots of the other orgs, think Hamilton's encampment policy is effectively the same as Toronto's, and if clean ups or cops do happen, they're always there filming and documenting it. They make a lot of people nervous but I think they're alright - they're just pretty mad and online, yknow? Aids Network / The Van - https://aidsnetwork.ca/the-van/ - The van is a service anyone can text or call and just say like 'hey we need safe use supplies at x park' and they'll just text back 'be there in 30 mins' like no questions asked. They're awesome, they also partner up with an outreach group run through public health / ADGS. It's the aids network, so they're far more established than HESN or K6. HRIC Outreach Van - I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't find a direct link to this one in 20 seconds of googling and I'm off today so I'm not lookin at my work phone. These guys run a route every day that basically starts in the west end in the afternoon, goes up the mountain, finishes in the east end. They have soup, sandwiches, first aid supplies, coffee, stuff like that. Super good dudes. EDIT: Felt racist that I was lazy about only this one so I found it. http://www.hric.ca/programs.php It doesn't look like they've updated their website to reflect the outreach van, but this is the org that does it. I wouldn't really worry about donating to any of the bigger orgs like say, Good Shepherd, Mission Services, Sally, or anything. They're big and get all kinds of government funding and grants, I personally think an individual donation would be much better served with those direct services I listed above. Capital Letdown fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Jul 23, 2021 |
# ? Jul 23, 2021 15:33 |